One of my computers is running under Windows 98 2nd Edition and I have been having problems with my DSL internet connection of late.

Last night the ISP support section was trying to help when the screen went a light blue colour (not the blue screen of death) and a message dialogue box appeared stating that "Explorer.exe' had suffered an error and had to close.

From this point onwards, everytime the computer was re-booted it went through the DOS/Bios section, displayed the Windows 98 logo screen and then the same blue screen and Explorer.exe message appears.

Can anyone advise what has gone wrong, how it fix the problem. Also is it possible to re-load Windows 98 without having to undertake a full format of the hard drive and if so what is the process --- I have the original Windows 98 disk.

The computer has two physical drives 1 = C & D, the other is Drive E only. I believe that the data is contained on either the D or E drives, but there is some software on the C drive that can not be replaced and I do not want to loose this software.

Finally, what is the importance of Explorer.exe and why would it cause the system to fail, when the compouter failed we were inside Internet Explorer in the Internet Options section.

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

David

howdy David
windows explorer is windows, that is it's the Graphical User Interface (GUI) that enables every intercation with mouse or keyboard and many other functions.

First try to boot into windows in Safe Mode. at the very beginning of boot like as soon as the bios POST screen appears begin repeatedly pressing the F8 key until the windows boot selection menu appears. use the up/down arrow keys to navigate the menu, select safe mode, press enter.

If you can boot into Safe Mode follow this to run System File Checker (SFC)
To start System File Checker, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, click System Information, and then click System File Checker on the Tools menu.
2. Click one of the following options:
Scan For Altered Files <--Use this one

Extract One File From Installation Disk
NOTE: If you click Extract One File From Installation Disk, you can specify the file you want to extract.

3. Click Settings, choose the configuration you want to use in System File Checker Settings, click OK, and then click Start.

if no boot into safe mode we'll use another method.

Surfer,

Thanks for the reply.

I did try booting with the back-up disk, but the exact same thing happened only with the "safe mode" font size --- DOS/Bios/Windows logo/ blue screen/ dialogue box.

I was talking to a computer chap a few minutes ago and he suggested trying to Cont/Alt/Del to get to the Task Manager (if this process works on Win 98) and then try to find Explorer.exe and terminate its process, then try to go to "File" and try to open a new task and make this task Explorer.exe.

If this is available, I will give it a try when I get home tonight, if it wont work any other advice will be greatly appreciated.

I do have an XP machine that I can check info on.

David

is possible to boot to dos prompt from windows boot menu, F8 again and run SFC from there.

need to change to the windows directory, type:
cd windows
press enter

type:
sfc /scannow
press enter

been a whils since doing anything in win98 or dos

Surfer,

Tried both yours and friends suggestions, but as I thought with friend's idea, the task manager section of Win 98 is very different to that of XP and what he suggested can not be done.

Tried your idea of going from the DOS prompt, but the "sfc /scannow" returns a "bad command or file name message".

Once in the windows directory, I tried all possible combinations of your suggestion but all give the same result.

Could you possibly have suggested typing the wrong search command?

Can you also advise, if it is possible to re-load the windows programme without causing the programme to format the disk or remove any partitions (the main HD is partitioned as the C and D drives).

Again I thank you for your assistance and likewise it has been a long time since I had to work within either the DOS or Win 98 environments.

David

must be in a different directory probably in \system32

if it'll run in pure dos try this command

at the c prompt type:
c:\windows\system 32\sfc /scannow

use command prompt with cd support
you'll need the win98 cd in the cd drive after boot.

Win98 doesn't have a System32 folder, Surfer. The Windows/System folder is the equivalent. Also / scannow is only for NT-based systems.

I think replacing Explorer.exe would be the way forward. It needs to be extracted from the Win98 CD or from a CAB file on the drive, if applicable:

First, you'll need to edit the 'system.ini' file in DOS to temporarily replace the
Explorer shell with Winfile. Then you can access your start menu, etc.

Boot to the command prompt. At the C:\> prompt (press Enter after each line) type:

cd windows
edit system.ini

Now change the shell=explorer.exe line to shell=winfile.exe

Press Alt+F together to access the File, Save and Exit menu and save the file
and exit.

Do a Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot.

Once in Winfile click File - Run, type: SFC then click OK. Choose to extract
one file from disk. File to extract: Explorer.exe (either point to the location
of your CAB install files or your Windows CD, whichever the case). Location to extract
to: C:\windows

Hopefully, you'll get a message saying the file has been successfully extracted.
Before exiting and shutting down, click File > Run again and enter system.ini so
that it opens in Notepad. Edit the line back to shell=explorer.exe Then reboot,
and a new copy of Explorer.exe will be in place.

An over-the-top (OTT) install of 98 is also possible. Just put the Windows CD in the tray and click on Setup.exe. This reinstalls the operating system without the loss of any data. However, as with all OTT installs, there is always a chance that something can go wrong. Try replacing Explorer.exe and see how it goes.

been longer than i thought. thanks ed. is my memory correct to think setup needs to be run from inside windows in order to do an over the top in win98?

Your memory serves you well, Wes: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/250928

Guys,

Thank you for all of this info.

Unfortunately I have been out of town for the entire week (home later tonight --friday) and will give everything a try on Saturday morning.

Wish me all the luck!!!!!!!

I will post the result.

David

HKEd

I have done as you suggest and all worked OK until I carried out the "Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot" function.

The computer re-booted but I have no idea how to get to the "Winfile" as you suggest for the rest of the process.

Once I re-boot and get to the C: prompt, if I simply enter "winfile" and press enter, I get a "Bad Command" notice and if I enter "winfile.ini" I get a message stating that it requires Windows.

I have placed the Windows disk in the CD Drive and tried the second method above, but nothing happens and I still get the requires Windows message.

Sorry to be a pain, but can you walk me through exactly what must be done after the re-boot process to be able to get to the "winfile" part of your process.

I have checked the "system.ini" section and the change from "shell=explorer.ini" to "shell= winfile.ini" has taken and has been saved.

Thanking you in advance.

David

Hi David...by editing System.ini, you should have booted to a Winfile environment rather than an Explorer one. Changing the shell=explorer.exe line in System.ini to shell=winfile.exe should have achieved this. Can you confirm (by looking at System.ini in DOS) that the line has been changed?

This is what I posted before:

Boot to the command prompt. At the C:\> prompt (press Enter after each line) type:

cd windows
edit system.ini

Now change the shell=explorer.exe line to shell=winfile.exe

It seems that you never got to the edit system.ini part?

Guys,

I thank you both for your assistance -- you both helped in different ways.

HFEd, I did as you suggested and all went according to your suggestions, except that on doing the final re-boot after going through the full Windows 98 load process, it still came up with the "Explorer has performed an illegal operation" message.

I re-did your suggestion and checked everything had taken place as you stated (everything had), but again on the finished boot, I got the same error message.

Now knowing that I could re-load Windows without erasing the data, I finally bit the bullet and re-installed Windows.

After the re-install and the computer's final re-boot all is now working OK. Even the internet connection --- the cause of the problem in the first place --- is working OK.

I am hoping that no further problems occur, but I am going to ensure that the wife backs up all of her data to a CD and that in future whenever she saves, she also saves to a USB stick. She has been backing up her data, but only about every three months.

Again thanks for all of your help with this problem and I hope I never have to speak to you again!!!!!!

David

Hi David...good to hear the reinstall went well for you, and the the original problem has been solved.

I have to point out that if you got an Explorer.exe error after editing System.ini, something went wrong with the edit. Editing the shell= line should have meant that Explorer.exe was no longer involved in the boot process, so there should have been no Explorer error. Anyway, all's well that ends well.

I'll close this thread and mark it resolved. If you need it reopened for any reason, please PM a Mod or Admin.